A place that discusses classic and contemporary horror films as well as horror related topics.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Walking Dead

AMC’s new show, The Walking Dead has been a huge success for being the first ever zombie television series in history!
Well, I take that back.Apparently, in the UK, a show called Dead Set premiered in which only five episodes were filmed in the form of a reality show like Big Brother. This year, IFC showed all five episodes this past Halloween weekend. Now a part of their on-air schedule, the episodes will be shown all next week (although you should consider recording them because depending on your cable provider or area, some of the episodes might be on air way after midnight) for your viewing pleasure. I’ve provided a trailer for the show below:

I have yet to watch the series but will report once I’ve seen them all to compare and contrast, of course.

While the UK had Dead Set, we have a show based on the comic book series, The Walking Dead, created by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, which is amazing to watch.
The pilot, “Days Gone Bye,” did a fantastic job at pulling the viewers in via 28 Days Later and Resident Evil without the fast running zombies as our main protagonist exits the deserted hospital, witnessing the many dead bodies lying in the parking lot. The storyline – which already gets complicated – makes the viewers care. OH and the special effects were outrageously awesome! I’m positive somewhere, Tom Savini watched this pilot with pride because he pioneered this kinda shit (well, some of the Italian horror before him but that’s another post).

The second episode I recently watched, “Guts,” was perfectly titled. The homage to both the original and remake of Dawn of the Dead made me wonder in hindsight if the creators of the comic book series knew how this world and episode would look like. If the homage was accidental or intentional, I was hooked and loved the visual reference because I love zombie movies. And I especially love moving pictures that have allusions to others and use the references effortlessly as well. The guts scene was disgusting enough to almost make me nauseous and I watch my share of gory horror flicks; kudos to Greg Nicotero and his crew for making my insides crawl with disgust and delight (double D’s) while watching a TV show!

I’m happy we finally have post-apocalyptic zombie show on television! It’s about time! I love vampires as well (Buffy the Vampire Slayer will always have a special place in my heart) but let’s do something different on the tube, shall we?

AMC, you are truly rocking my world right now. Thank you for your existence! :)